Choosing a Favored Enemy

the two of you do have one thing in common : If something goes against your code, you're unshakable in your fervor to set things right . When you both agree on something, it's not a good idea to get in your way.

Rogues : You have a lot in common with the party rogue because your skill sets overlap but don't compete. When the two of you move down a hallway together, you can back each other up in ways a paladin and wizard couldn't begin to understand . You may live in different environments, but you respect each other's abilities and attitudes .

Sorcerers : Sorcerers are what rangers would be if they were arcane spellcasters-fast, focused, and uncluttered by tomes and universities. You and the sorcerer work well together because you can depend on him to do what you expect and do it well .

Wizards : Wizards can be maddeningly unpredictable . You want maximum versatility in combat, and so does she-mostly for staying out of melee . But just when you decide to wade in for two-weapon battery, you discover that she's targeting the area for a fireball . Still, any arcane spellcaster is better than none, since she's bound to have lots of useful spells .

Variant : Urban Rangers

The Player's Handbook describes rangers as forest denizens who can use the natural camouflage of the woods to advantage . Soveliss, girded in his tree-trunkbrown studded leather, is ready at a moment's notice to disappear among the trees . This is a fine lifestyle for the majority of rangers, but some prefer to stalk foes through other terrain . The urban ranger is the king of the streets, capable of tracking a foe through a marketplace or across a castle parapet .

To play an urban ranger, use the rules from the ranger class description in Chapter 3 of the Player's Handbook . Every rule mentioned there also applies to an urban ranger . With your DM's permission, however, you can adopt a few modifications designed to make your character more effective in the unorthodox urban terrain .

" Make the following class skill switches : Animal

Empathy for Gather Information and Knowledge (nature) for Knowledge (local) . Saying goodbye to an exclusive class skill is hard, but you need as many ranks in Gather Information and Knowledge (local) as you can get . " Trade the Track feat for the Shadow feat (see Chapter 2) . This gives you an edge in following someone through city streets . Also, you might want to adopt the special use of the Hide skill called Tail Someone, as described in Chapter 2 . " Take an organization or culture rather than a creature type as a favored enemy . For example, you might choose the Knights of the Hart, which would allow you to use your favored enemy bonuses against elves and humans who belong to that organization, but not against other elves and humans . Be sure to make such a choice in concert with your DM, or you could end up with a favored enemy you never encounter . " Swap out a few ranger spells for bard spells of equal level . Here are some trades to consider: detect Snares and pits for detect secret doors, speak with animals for message,

Speak with plants for detect thoughts, plant growth for phantom Steed, and tree Stride for dimension door. You might want to see if your DM would let you trade for spells from different class lists as well, though you're unlikely to get chain lightning out of the deal .

An urban ranger who wants to adopt a prestige class i U might consider the bloodhound the watch detective, (see Chapter 5) . All the foe hunter, or those focus on improving the ranger's best attributes without advancing the naturalistic aspect of the class .

Below are statistics for an urban ranger created with these variant rules : the dwarven constable Sergeant Reginald Fitz-Louis and his trusty mastiff, Baskerville .

'Sergeant Reginald Fitz-Louis : Male dwarf Rgr12 ; CR 12 ; Medium-size humanoid ; HD 12d10+36 ; hp 102 ; Init +1 ; Spd . 20 ft . ; AC 17 (touch 11, flat-footed 16) ; Atk +14/+9/+4 melee (1d8+3/19-20, +1 ghost touch longsword) and +13/+8 melee (1d6+2/x3, +1 handaxe) or +15 ranged (1d8+1/ 19-20, masterwork light crossbow with +1 crossbow bolts) ; SQ Dwarf traits, favored enemies (cult of Vecna +3, goblinoids +2, giants +1); AL LN ; SV Fort +11, Ref +5, Will +7 ; Str 15, Dex 12, Con 17, Int 14, Wis 17, Cha 15 . Skills and Feats : Appraise +4, Bluff +7, Concentration +6, Craft (metalworking) +4, Craft (stoneworking) +4, Diplomacy +4, Disguise +4, Gather

Information +19, Hide +11, Intimidate +4, Knowledge (local) +12, Listen +11, Move Silently +6, Perform +4, Ride (horse) +6, Search +17, Spot +18 ; Alertness, Expertise, Improved Two-Weapon Fighting, Shadow, Skill Focus (Gather Information), Weapon Focus (longsword) .

Dwarf Traits : +1 racial bonus on attack rolls against orcs and goblinoids ; +2 racial bonus on Will saves against spells and spell-like abilities ; +2 racial bonus on Fortitude saves against all poisons ; +4 dodge bonus against giants; darkvision 60 ft . ; stonecunning (+2 racial bonus on checks to notice unusual stonework ; can make a check for unusual stonework as though actively searching when within 10 ft . and use the Search skill to find stonework traps as a rogue can; intuit depth) ; +2 racial bonus on Appraise checks and Craft or Profession checks related to stone or metal (figured into the statistics above) .

Favored Enemies : Reginald has selected the cult of Vecna as his first favored enemy, goblinoids as his second, and giants as his third. He gains a +3, +2, and +1 bonus, respectively, on melee damage rolls and on his Bluff, Listen, Sense Motive, Spot, and Wilderness Lore checks against these creature types.

Spells Prepared (2/2/2; base DC =13 + spell level) : 1stdetect secret doors, message ; 2nd-cure light wounds, detect thoughts ; 3rd-neutralize poison, phantom Steed.

Possessions : +3 Studded leather armor, +1 ghost touch longsword, +1 handaxe, masterwork light crossbow, 25 +1 crossbow bolts, circlet of persuasion, figurine of wondrous power (onyx dog), potion of Sneaking, potion of cure moderate wounds .

Baskerville : Male onyx dog ; CR 1 ; Medium-size animal ; HD 2d8+4 ; hp 13 ; Init +2 ; Spd . 40 ft . ; AC 16 (touch 12, flat-footed 14) ; Ark +3 melee (1d6+3, bite) ; SA Trip ; SQ Darkvision 60 ft ., low-light vision, scent, see invisible, speaks Common ; AL N ; SV Fort +5, Ref +5, Will +1 ; Str 15, Dex 15, Con 15, Int 8, Wis 12, Cha 6 .

Skills and Feats: Listen +5, Search +3, Spot +9, Swim +5, Wilderness Lore +1 (+S when tracking by scent) .

Choosing a Favored Enemy "Do unto others as they Seek to do unto you ."

-Soveliss

Over the course of twenty levels, the ranger chooses five favored enemies . Many factors can come into play here, including the player's choice of background ("I chose my path when orcs devastated my homeland"), campaign environment ("Here in the snowy northlands, we live to fight the remorhaz"), and game utility ("What are we going to fight in the near future?") .

Once the ranger makes a choice, he can't later change his mind . That means the player must bet on what kind of creatures the character is likely to meet most often . The Dungeon Master can help with this, since he or she knows what's out there in the campaign world .

Against his favored enemy, a ranger gets a bonus on Bluff, Listen, Sense Motive, Spot, and Wilderness Lore checks, as well as damage rolls with melee weapons and with ranged weapons fired from no more than 30 feet away. (This damage bonus does not apply against creatures immune to critical hits.) The value of the bonus is +1 when the ranger first designates that creature type as a favored enemy, and it rises by an additional +1 at 5th, 10th, 15th, and 20th levels . He chooses his first favored enemy at 1st level, the second at 5th level, the third at 10th, the fourth at 15th, and the fifth at 20th .

There's a tradeoff involved in making these choices . Should the ranger's first favored enemy be a low-CR or a high-CR creature? Remember, the first favored enemy chosen is the one against which he has the highest bonus throughout his career, and the last is the one against which he has the lowest bonus. Is it better to gain an early advantage or to forego the immediate benefit and work toward the long term? In fact, both are perfectly valid choices . For example, suppose you choose orcs first. That gives your ranger a useful bonus against orcs when he's likely to see them most-when he's low level. When he's 20th level, though, he has a +5 bonus against ores (which he may rarely see at that point) and a lower bonus against the more powerful creatures that he's likely to meet more often. Conversely, if you choose demons as your ranger's first favored enemy, he's not likely to get much benefit out of his bonus for a long time because he probably wont meet many demons until he has several levels under his belt. But when he does meet them, he immediately has a substantial bonus against them .

Aberrations : This category is a rich choice for favored enemy. Aberrations include beholders, carrion crawlers, driders, gibbering mouthers, mimics, mind flayers, nagas, oryughs, rust monsters, skum, umber hulks, willo'-wisps, and many others . Of these, skum are the lowestpowered at CR 2 . Thus, if you want an early advantage, aberrations may not be a good first choice . However, there's a clump of them in the CR 6-8 range, and even more beyond that, so this category is a fine choice for a second, third, or fourth enemy. If you don't mind waiting a while to reap the benefit, go ahead and take aberrations as your first choice .

Animals : Animals are among the best choices for first favored enemy . Your ranger should meet a lot of them at low levels, but he'll continue to meet tougher ones as he advances . Dire animals range all the way up to CR 9 (the dire shark) .

Beasts : This surprisingly small category of foes includes odd creatures such as ankhegs, griffons, hippogriffs, hydras, owlbears, purple worms, and stirges, as well as dinosaurs, rocs, and sea lions . The CRs in this grouping range from 1 (stirge) to 12 (purple worm), so beasts are a good choice for a ranger's first, second, or maybe even third favored enemy.

Constructs : These creatures are immune to critical hits (and thus to the ranger's favored enemy damage bonus), so this is a suboptimal choice unless you're using the variant favored enemy rules, below. Bluff and Sense Motive are useless against constructs . The bonuses on Spot, Listen, and Wilderness Lore checks still apply, hut since constructs frequently just sit in place until disturbed, these benefits aren't much help either .

Dragons : This category is a great choice at any level. A ranger can meet a wyrmling white dragon right out of the gate and still be fighting dragons when he reaches 20th level. This is one of the few categories that scales up as the ranger advances, since dragons advance as well .